Live at Jazz Standard with Fred Hersch (Mack Avenue)
Nancy King
Released May 9, 2006
Grammy Nominee for Best Jazz Vocal Album 2007
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kmucne9MBgscur5SOFqkQXIHjyEgFD6fk
Spotify:
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About:
Very few improvisers in vocal jazz have mastered the musical vocabulary like Nancy King. The same can be said for the extremely accomplished pianist Fred Hersch. After many years of circling each other, the two have finally been documented in Nancy’s new MAXJAZZ release Live at Jazz Standard.
Track Listing:
1. There’s a Small Hotel (Lorenz Hart / Richard Rodgers) 7:08
2. I Fall in Love Too Easily (Sammy Cahn / Jule Styne) 8:11
3. Little Suede Shoes/Day by Day (Sammy Cahn / Charlie Parker / Axel Stordahl / Paul Weston) 5:34
4. Everything Happens to Me 8:34
5. Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Harry Brooks / Andy Razaf / Fats Waller) 5:43
6. If You Never Come to Me (Inutil Paisagem) (Ray Gilbert / Antônio Carlos Jobim) 9:19
7. There Will Never Be Another You (Mack Gordon / Harry Warren) 7:10
8. Autumn in New York (Vernon Duke) 10:51
9. Four (Miles Davis / Jon Hendricks) 10:51
Personnel:
Fred Hersch: piano
Nancy King: vocals
Recorded October 23, 2004, at Jazz Standard, New York, NY
Produced by Fred Hersch
Recording and Mixing: Martin Goodman
Photography: David Bartolomi
Design: Pressley Jacobs
Review:
Nancy
King is a jazz vocalist who swings for the fences. An all-out scat master, King
possesses all of the elasticity of Betty Carter and all of the panache and
control of Ella Fitzgerald. Fred Hersch is a pianist’s pianist, the finest
ballad-oriented player to emerge from the long shadow of Bill Evans. It’s a bit
of a mystery why these bright lights had not collaborated before Live at Jazz Standard. The
result is East Coast meets West Coast; left coast cool versus right coast
sleek; dense talent colliding in creative critical mass.
King and Hersch showed up at New York’s Jazz Standard for a performance as part
of Hersch’s “Duo Invitation Series. The two artists had not performed
together, even in practice. According to Hersch, they united before the
performance and picked out songs they both knew and then went out and played.
Now, that is jazz! It is no surprise that the lion’s share of the songs are
ballads.
The duo starts with the angular, Monkish “There’s a Small Hotel, which
gives way to the pensive “I Fall in Love too Easily. Both ballads are
lengthy, allowing the artists to explore their terrain. King uncannily echoes
Chet Baker on the latter piece, buoyed by Hersch’s impressionistic pianism.
Other impressionistic versions of “Everything Happens to Me, “Ain’t
Misbehavin’ and “There will Never be Another You follow later down the
road. But all is not balladic—Charlie Parker’s “Little Suede Shoes shows
up with Sammy Cahn’s “Day by Day in a medley. King scats the Parker piece
deftly in bebop counterpoint with Hersch. The show is capped by lengthy
performances of “Autumn in New York and a jumping “Four, with Miles
Davis’ melody and Jon Hendricks’ lyrics.
Jazz is the free spirit of music—improvisation as instant creation with no second takes, just like life. This freedom of spirit makes this duo performance compelling and special. Music like this erases the distinction between singer and accompanist, placing both artists on level ground.
C. Michael Bailey (All About Jazz)
